Friday, July 27, 2012

Just
a quick note to let you know I'll be completely off grid 7/27 to 8/6.
I'll be on a cruise ship, the Inside Passage of Alaska. Yes, you
remember right. I got to go on a similar cruise in 2010. That was
with my in-laws and great, but this is with my best friend ONLY and
for her special decade type birthday (which shall not be named) and
we're so excited for an all-girls vacation. I'll be thinking of you
as I sip my martinis, and will get back to you and the A-Z Blog when
I return. No worries, the A-Z Team is awesome and you can still send
in requests for guest posts there. You just won't get an answer for
a while...

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I
don't know if this happens to you, but when a mess, or a gross thing,
or something I don't want to deal with has been there long enough, I
really don't see it anymore. Take for example my bathroom sink.
It's from 1974, not even “avocado” but “mint” back when
pastel bathrooms where all the rage. I happen to like the color, and
it does match the tile (also original, of course), but the faucet was
a disgrace to put it mildly. Impossible to get clean after years and
years of build-up. One day, one of my adored beyond measure cleaning
girls said gently, “You know, if you replaced that faucet, I bet it
wouldn't cost all that much and it would really make it look nicer in
here.” See?

So I
told the engineer. Who said, “Of course we can replace the faucet!
Why haven't you asked before?” Let's not get into how many times
we've discussed updating the bathroom shall we? Off we go to the
Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Does
your town have one of these? I hope so. It's like a garage
sale/flea market and is eerily similar to my own garage where The
Engineer's craigslist habit has filled the non-car side with...free
stuff. The car side? It belongs to Sparky. Sparky Von-Boom-Car,
the former Toyota Paseo which is a set of batteries away from being
an electrical car. 99% done. We ran out of money. It's been
sitting. A while. Got fired in 2009, remember?

We
find a great sink, with a great faucet. Serendipitously, the week
before I'd been looking for a new razor, which I knew I had,
and ended up spending 4.5 hours cleaning out under the sink. I think
I might have mentioned this before, or maybe that was facebook... but
every twelve years, whether it needs it or not ;-) is my motto. Five
trash bags. Two donation bags. Clear plastic totes each holding its
category of stuff. Easy to move should one need to install a new
sink. See this? I'd call it “in the nick of time”

New
sink.

Check
out the price.

Happy
camper here.

Do
you have a mess you don't “see”? Found a good deal you want to
brag about? Or are you like one of my friends whose house is ALWAYS
perfect?

Monday, July 23, 2012

We're
focusing on clowns this week, and the first thing I thought of was
that episode of Friends where Joey and Chandler took Ross's baby to
the park because Ross said it would help them pick up chicks. It did
not. It made the chicks think they were a cute, gay couple. They
got attention, but no dates. On the way home, they leave the baby on
the bus, and thus have to go the bus depot to pick up their baby.
There are two babies. They can't identify the baby. One has a duck shirt, one has a clown shirt.

The embedding is disabled on the clip but you've GOT to give 1:23 and you'll start your day with a belly laugh.

It's the hardest I've laughed probably
ever and I'm chuckling as I write it. Oh, and rest assured, they get the right baby.
Eventually.

The
other clown I chose for today breaks my heart. No, not Heath Ledger
as the joker, though I considered him because damn, what a waste of a
talented young man's life, so sad.

No,
I'm thinking of John C. Reilly's “Mr. Cellophane” from “Chicago”.
It's one of my favorite movies, and his solo is one of the best
scenes. Without going into too much detail, since I'm rocking the
brevity thing these days (in my opinion at least...you tell me) he's
the sad and lonely husband of Roxie Hart, in jail for killing her
lover. If you have time, watch the video, at least the first part
where he's putting on his clown make-up and dancing in the dusty
light on the empty stage with no one listening.

If you'd like to participate, you can either name your movies in the comments, or write your own post and leave the link over in Nicole's comments. It's an easy way to start a week, and I know a LOT of bloggers who are movie buffs. Just sayin'...

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ok,
so it's not my worst parenting blunder. It's just my most recent.
But oh does it highlight so many others that it's worth including in
this category. Just so you know, I have an UNENDING supply of
parental blunder stories to share. I'm human. And female. And live
in a household of MEN. Men who could all be engineers if one of them
would just get off his lazy buttocks and produce some actual work.
Sigh. (Lost? See yesterday's post).

You
know how sometimes you have to apologize to your kids because you
screwed up and have to admit you did the wrong thing? I'm in that
place more than I care to admit. So we've been camping (as you read
yesterday) and are home, and I don't know about your place, but
around Colorado we've been setting some serious heat records. I spent
Friday packing, Saturday camping, ½ of Sunday un-camping, and the
other half lying in my wind tunnel trying not to pass out. I'd
forgotten to pack my asthma meds and the lack thereof had finally
kicked me in the ass.

“Mom,
will you make me some baked oatmeal?” This is a concoction that
was served to YellowBoy at camp, and he's been living off of it
since. I can just hear the conversation at your house right now,

“Mom?
Watcha reading?”

“Some
crazy lady who wouldn't get up off her butt and spend ten minutes to
make a simple dinner for her son.”

“What
was she not making?”

Recipe:

3
cups rolled oats

1 cup
brown sugar

2
eggs

1
stick melted butter

1 cup
milk

2 tsp
vanilla extract

2 tsp
cinnamon

2 tsp
baking powder

1 tsp
salt

Mix.
Pour into lubed 9x13 pan and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350. It
tastes like a granola bar, only it's cheaper and they drink milk with
it. Adds up to good in my book. Which might not match yours...but
there ya' go.

Here's
where it gets ugly. At first I explain about the heat and the
packing and the tiredness and the horror of heating the kitchen with
the stove to bake. He just calmly looks at me and says,

“Mom,
remember when you got back from being gone, and I asked you to make
me a sandwich, and you said you're so tired from traveling and that I
can make my own sandwich? And then the next day you said you were
sorry and that if you'd been thinking of it the right way, you would
have spent the five minutes making me the sandwich. This is like
that. Can I have some baked oatmeal?”

Of
course I cave. If something I did over a year ago has made such a
big impact that he can quote me, then I've totally blown it. Baked
oatmeal it is. Want some? It's a lot easier to eat than crow.

Monday, July 16, 2012

The
campground is waking up around me. Some wake up slowly, with
whispers that I can doze through. Some are still asleep and nothing
stirs at their place. I propose that they are people without
children, or dogs, because the families with kids and dogs come with
moms who yell, “Stop IT!” to the dog (oh, how effective that is,
listen, he's STILL barking) and “Don't touch that to the kid!”
(who gets that phrase repeated to him over and over and over again –
much like the barking dog gets his phrase). Ineffective parenting
bugs the crap out of me. Yes, I'm a perfect parent.

Ok,
I'm not. I am, however, a parent who is observant, and since there's
a lot of bad parenting all around, there are plenty of
counter-examples to avoid, if one just observes how NOT to do it.

Don't
tell a kid that, “If you ______ , then I'll________ ,” unless you
really, truly mean it. The first time you don't follow through is
like poking a tiny hole in a balloon and pretty much all your
credibility is drained out in a few short encounters. “Well, she
doesn't usually, actually _______ so I think it's worth the risk.”

Don't
give kids treats to shut them up. “Ok, fine, have another
ice-cream sandwich, just let me talk to ___________ on the phone and
don't come in here again!” However, I'm all for a bribe. “IF
you can leave me alone for ten minutes, and you sweep the kitchen and
take out the trash, THEN you can have another one.” I'm not
heartless, nor the sugar police, just trying to keep it real. And
get my kitchen swept.

Listen
to your kids. Don't tell them, “I'll talk to you later, right now
I'm...” If they're actually wanting to talk, don't miss it. Wish
I'd learned this one sooner.

Yes,
it's really 2:30 am MST. Insomnia sucks. So does my writing at this
hour, but I haven't posted in a week and so I'm back to the paranoia
of people forgetting me...bad blogging...bad parenting...both
bad...good-night.

What's
your biggest parenting blunder? Willing to share? I'll share mine
tomorrow when I can think more clearly. You can probably tell right away where the part I wrote while camping ends and the part I wrote in the middle of the night takes over...

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Feeling
blue. SkinnyBoy has moved to Florida. As in our chances of crossing
paths again are as slim as he is.

He
used to be our neighbor, lived four houses away. He spent as much
time at our house as he was allowed, which was pretty much 24/7 in
the summers, and during the school year, he'd show up for our carpool
almost an hour early to “hang out, I was ready for school.” I
fed him breakfast. Made sure he had lunch money or packed him a
lunch. His Dad had lost his job even before the Great Recession hit.
I know things were tough at his house for a multitude of reasons, so
we did what we could to help, though direct help was completely
refused. Out of respect for him, let's just leave all that there.

After
I dropped him at his house on school days, with his over-stuffed
back-pack and french horn, he'd shut the door with a, “See you in a
minute!” and would be back at our house almost before I could turn
the car around and hit our driveway. He stayed for dinner a lot.
Eventually of course he had to go home to do his homework, but so did
my boys. Worked out great. Just for reference, my boys are 2 ½
years apart, he's right between them age-wise. He and I share a
birthday. With Obama. And Best :-)

I
love this boy. A boy of integrity, great work ethic, always cleaned
up his dishes and offered to do chores. We pay for chores around
here, don't believe in “allowance”. There are of course some
“because you live here” chores which don't pay (dishes, laundry,
trash, recycling, vacuuming, sweeping) but others do. He did a lot
of those. Loving video games as much as my boys, he did those to make any spending “frivolously” possible, I'm sure.

Two
years ago they lost their house and moved across town to a rental
duplex. That didn't stop our boys who have bikes, he'd just ride
over here and knock, just as if he'd run down the hill. Friendship
continued almost interrupted.

A
month ago he began preparing us all. “My Dad is maybe getting a
job in Florida.” Wow. Job great. Florida not so much. Dad got
job. He came over to say goodbye while I was in Texas. I didn't get
to give that skinny little body one more hug. I didn't get to tell
him, one more time, my version of this quote from The Help as
Aibileen did Mae Mobley, “You is kind, you is smart. You is
important.”

I
asked him once why he liked being over here so much. “You're
always happy to see me, I know you love me, and it feels really nice
to be here.” Hold on to that thought dear boy as your life is
about to change. May you find another family that makes you feel
that way. Good bye, SkinnyBoy. Good bye.

Monday, July 9, 2012

I
love Mondays. It's nice to know that there's a prompt waiting for me, a meme that will welcome me (and you, should you choose), and
that folks will be dropping by. I kinda want some folks to drop by.
I took an accidental nine day blogcation and I'm of course paranoid
that everyone, all 387 of you, will have forgotten me. Sigh.

I
immediately thought of one of my favorite movies, and NO, it's not
because it was Matthew McConaughey's break-out movie, though hubba
hubba I'll check out those flat-front khakis and all that sexy
Mississippi sweat any time. I love this movie because of the
relationships between Jake and those around him. He has a mentor, a
funny buddy, an assistant who provides some amazing chemical tension
while the wife is tucked away safely, a worthy adversary in the slimy
DA (I do love me some Kevin Spacey, I will admit), and a client who
couldn't be further out of his social network. It all works. There are
parts of the movie that are very hard to watch, and it's R+ if you'd
asked me to rate it, but wow, it's good. Oh yeah, the voting. The
jury votes guilty or not guilty.

Unlike
my previous selection which I've watched multiple times, this one
I've only seen once, but it must have made some impact because as I
was pondering voting movies, it immediately came to mind. Probably because I'm a
big fan of Reese Witherspoon. It was made in 1999, and has some
other great actors who are still around (Matthew Broderick, for
example). It's about a high school class presidential election, and
I love any description of a movie that ends with, “Chaos ensues.”
It's a favorite phrase of mine. Give it a try. Both the phrase and the movie.

I
think I'll leave it at two movies today. Got blogs to visit. My
road-trip car has been parked at the same campsite for over two weeks
now...(see button in sidebar if you don't know what I'm talking
about).

What
election movies did you find recommendable? Have you seen these two?
How ya' been? I've been missing you and itching to
blog/write/visit, etc. It's just this pesky thing called family
responsibilities and priorities of life that keep getting in the
way...how do you handle those when the blogosphere's siren song is calling your name?